RYUKYU Moritoshi Oshiro still bears the scars from the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. He walks with a limp and cannot see out of one eye, the result of beatings he endured despite his father’s now-famous efforts to protect the then 12-year-old boy. [ASAHI]

RYUKYU More than 5,000 people attended a ceremony in Itoman on Okinawa to mark the 63rd anniversary of the end of fighting on Okinawa during World War II, which left tens of thousands of civilians dead. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU The U.S. consul general in Okinawa said Monday the United States is ready to discuss with Japan which country has the authority to arrest U.S. military-related people when illegal acts are detected during joint police patrols, which have been proposed by Japan. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

RYUKYU U.S. forces in Japan said late Monday they would ease a sweeping curfew on troops that was imposed nearly two weeks ago in a bid to calm public anger after an alleged rape by a U.S. Marine. [AFP]

RYUKYU A U.S. nonmilitary employee at the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture and two Japanese men were arrested on suspicion of using a stimulant drug, police said Saturday. [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU With an unprecedented curfew on U.S. military personnel in Okinawa tentatively due to expire Monday, central government and prefectural officials are rushing to assure those living near U.S. bases that anticrime measures are being taken in the wake of the alleged Feb. 10 rape of a 14-year-old local girl by a marine. (2) [THE JAPAN TIMES]

RYUKYU The United States said Friday its military will continue to probe a U.S. Marine’s alleged rape of a junior high school girl in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture earlier this month, despite the release of the suspect after the victim withdrew the accusation against him. [KYODO]

RYUKYU The Naha District Public Prosecutors Office said Friday night it had decided not to indict a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant arrested on Feb. 11 on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old middle school girl, adding that it had released him. [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU Six citizens groups are set to stage a rally on March 23 to protest the alleged rape of a junior high school girl in Okinawa Prefecture by a U.S. Marine, organizers said. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU The Okinawa prefectural police said Thursday that a Filipino woman living in Okinawa Prefecture told the police she had been assaulted by a U.S. serviceman at a hotel in the city of Okinawa. (1) [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU A week after a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by U.S. Marine Tyrone Luther Hadnott, U.S. military personnel on the streets of Okinawa were still discussing the attack, slamming Hadnott’s conduct. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU In the wake of the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a U.S. Marine Corps staff sergeant in Okinawa Prefecture, the central government on Thursday started to consider the possibility of considering setting up security cameras in entertainment districts in the prefecture, according to government sources. [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly unanimously adopted resolutions on Thursday condemning the alleged rape of a junior high school girl by a U.S. Marine and calling for measures to prevent a recurrence. (2) [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima expressed anger at the alleged rape of a junior high school girl by a U.S. marine on Monday. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU Residents of an Okinawa island who committed mass suicide during World War II were ordered to do so by the Japanese military, claims a historian who has quoted a new witness in her book to be published later this month. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU The central government has shown signs of a compromise with the Okinawa prefectural government over the contentious plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station to Nago by proposing to move the relocation site 50 meters offshore compared with the current plan. [KYODO]

RYUKYU Japan TransOcean Air and Ryukyu Air Commuter canceled a total of 16 flights arriving and departing Yonaguni, Hateruma and Tarama islands on Tuesday due to a typhoon approaching the area in Okinawa Prefecture, the airlines said. [KYODO]

RYUKYU Japan will deploy F-15 fighter jets on the southern island of Okinawa for the first time by early 2009, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday, in an apparent move to enhance air defenses against China. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU Incensed by the government’s decision to expunge descriptions in school textbooks of the army’s involvement in wartime mass civilian suicides in Okinawa, survivors are coming forward with tales of Japanese soldiers encouraging islanders to take their lives. [ASAHI]

RYUKYU About 110,000 people held a rally in Okinawa on Saturday to demand that the education ministry retract an instruction pressuring publishers of history textbooks to remove references to the military’s involvement in forcing civilians to commit mass suicide during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. [THE JAPAN TIMES]